I didn't know this....

From Dissecting Leftism we learn

The extent of the failure of the Swedish model are both shocking and little known. For example, no new net jobs have been produced in the Swedish private sector since 1950. (By contrast, the U.S. created more than 60 million new private-sector jobs during the same period, from 52 million in 1950 to about 115 million in 2002.) "None of top 50 companies on the Stockholm stock exchange has been started since 1970."

Again, contrast this with the U.S. where many of our biggest companies had not been born or known of in 1970, such as Microsoft, Intel, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Cisco, etc., Mr. Karlson's litany of failures of the Swedish model include: "Sweden has dropped from fourth to 14th place in 2002 among the OECD countries (i.e., affluent industrialized countries) in terms of GDP per capita since 1970."

In addition, "well over 1 million people out of a work force of around four million did not work in 2003 but lived on various kinds of public welfare programs

More (much more) here

Eurozone:

Signs of shaky economies in France and Germany have sharpened worries about Europe's less-than-robust recovery - and underscored the struggle to shake up regulation-clogged economies in countries that use the euro.....

Private economists, however, point to shadows cast by Germany's rise in unemployment in December to 10.8 percent, and French government statistics showing zero economic growth in the third quarter. Unemployment there remains at 9.9 percent.

Economists expect fourth-quarter growth of 3.5 percent to over 4 percent in the United States, where unemployment was only 5.4 percent in December. Per-person U.S. gross domestic product of around $44,610 (34,100 euros) remains ahead of $30,746 (23,500 euros) for people in the 12 countries using the euro...

I knew our productivity was better, but I didn't know it was half-again better.  Yikes -- no wonder they're so busy trying to tie us down.

Comments

[RTB]

Like liberals/socialists here, old Europe wants Americans to aspire to be as weak as they are. The fact that we refuse to make that step into the abyss (aka socialism) is infuriating to them. Ha ha ha....blah, ha ha ha...BLAH! HA HA HA HA....

Euroweenians.

I (try to) read the Economist weekly. They are desparate for us to be pathetic and weak like them. We won't, so their political leaders blame the US for their problems to appease the voters - not unlike the royal families of the backwards middle eastern countries.